JOHNSON HAS RIGHT STANCE ON INDUSTRIAL HEMP VALUE

A few months ago I had a letter to the editor published regarding the issue
of industrial hemp as an energy source (Your Views, March 10).

After it came out I made copies of it and sent one to Congressman Tim
Johnson, R-ILL. In mid May I received a letter from his office in response.

His letter was brief but powerful.

He writes, "...it is clear to me that industrial hemp has many positive
uses, not only as an energy course, as you describe, but also as a medicinal
and nutritional agent, to name only a few.

"Furthermore, it would be very a profitable alternative crop for regions
that are highly dependent upon a single crop such as tobacco or wheat."

So ... cannabis hemp is an energy source, a food and a medicine. Those are
areas of interest and concern to every human being on the planet.

A very profitable crop? Absolutely.

It is simply unarguably the planet's greatest annually renewable natural
resource.

And, at a time when the Bush administration has been forced to admit the
human-caused reality and seriousness of climate disruption/global warming,
cannabis hemp would appear to be a way out of the world-destroying mode that
we have gotten ourselves into.

With it, we can green up the economy while we green up the world.

Congressman Johnson writes that there is no current legislative vehicle for
the legalization of industrial hemp.

But that he would "be supportive of the concept" and "would carefully
consider all proposals."

To ground yourself in this, please read Chris Conrad's "Hemp: Lifeline to
the Future" and "Hemp For Health."

Contact Congressman Johnson's office and let him know you support his
position on this plant.

Lets bring this issue out in the open and bring the debate on.

And here's a news flash: Hemp is being grown to clean up the radioactively
contaminated ground around Chernobyl, one of mandkind's foulest messes.

How much clearer can this get?

Gregg Brown, Bloomington